The doors of the World Trade
Organization (WTO) will be opened to our country sooner or later. At that
time, competition will not be limited to the country or the region, but will
be as vast as the whole world and the most important point would be
competitive advantages and reliance on modern economic principles; an economy
whose basis would no longer be macro-economy but small-scale economy; the
economy of corporations. At that time our economic corporations must be
capable of surviving in a competitive environment, to fend for themselves and
be able to attract customers from all across the world.

The question that occurs to one’s mind
is that now that the basis for the success of macro-economy is having
prosperous economic corporations, what is the basis of having prosperous
economic corporations? The answer given to this question by the modern economy
is a successful director and satisfied customers. Based on this
recommendation, modern economic principles introduce quality management in
parallel to strategic management.

Strategic management is having
information, sciences and techniques and, in short, needed tools, on the one
hand, and having set goals, on the other hand. Quality management aims at
satisfaction of customers, boosting quality of products, introducing suitable
prices and supporting clients.

Having a director with good command of
strategic management and adequate information one can be successful with
regard to the future prospects of an economic corporation.

By presenting these brief definitions,
we want to review the reasons for the success of one of our country’s economic
corporations.

Pars Tire Company that once had focused
on producing various kinds of vehicle tires to meet our country’s requirements
and provide tires for logistic equipment and systems during the Holy Defense
shifted its efforts to meeting the domestic need during the reconstruction
period. The company pursued earning more foreign exchange since 1996 after
inauguration of its new production line. It was recently privatized and is now
looking forward to globalization by observing the principles of modern
economy. The main factor that has promised a bright future for the company is
a management that is familiar with the concepts of strategic and quality
management. Its management is currently busy step-by-step executing principles
of this management as a tool for future success and, undoubtedly one of the
most prominent directors in this regard is managing director of this company.
Since he took charge of the company in 2000, when it was still affiliated to
the public sector, he brought about positive changes in domestic cement
industries.

Mahmoud Ghaeli is managing director of
one of the most successful cement factories in the country and is also member
of the board of directors or project director of some other cement factories.
He is also a renowned figure in the domestic rubber and tire industry. A
delicate question that arises here is how it is possible for a person who has
always been working with cement factories to became a prominent director of
rubber industry as well, so that, even the private owner of Pars Rubber Co.
has kept him and is not willing to lose him? The answer is clear enough.
Ghaeli is a director familiar with the principles of modern economy as well as
strategic and quality management sciences. With this skill even if he became
director of an economic corporation in the service sector, that corporation
would be successful too.

The following is summary of an interview
with Mahmoud Ghaeli.

Let’s start with a question about the capacity of your
company, the amount of exports and the markets you export to.

The Company has a production capacity of
40,000 tons of various kinds of tires per year, 85-90 percent of which are
tires for heavy vehicles including minibuses, buses and trailers. The company,
which markets its products under the trademark ‘Pirouzi’, is the biggest tire
production unit in Iran. It also produces tires for sedan cars in various
sizes. It exports its products to the Persian Gulf littoral states, as well as
Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey, Central Asian countries and a number of African
states. However, our main customers are Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. On
average we export one-sixth of our products.

How did you start to export your products?

Export is an important economic affair.
During the war, the government equipped the company to increase production of
tires for heavy vehicles. After the war our products were not used in the
domestic market and we could not change our production line again because it
would not have been economical. We had only two choices. Reducing production
or finding new markets. We accepted the second option and targeted for
neighboring countries. At present the name of ‘Pirouzi’ tire is well-known in
countries such as Iraq.

Please explain about your after-sales services.

First we established a good working
relation with overseas customers and earned their trust and confidence. We
guarantee our tires for four years inside the country and for one year abroad.
Of course, since we are committed to quality management, the quantity of
returned product is very low compared to our exports and most returned
packages were due to faulty packaging.

What standards do you observe for assuring the quality of
your products?

In addition to observing Iran’s national
standards and receiving the permit of using Iran’s standard emblem, we produce
or products in line with international standards. Our production and quality
assurance is carried out according to stipulations of ISO 9002 whose
certificate we obtained a while ago. We have also completed the course for
obtaining the ISO 14001 certificate. We are also in the process of obtaining
the ISO TS certificate for vocational safety and pursue establishment of a
unified and comprehensive quality management system.

What measure have you taken to observe customers rights
inside the country?

We consider the domestic market as a
considerable part of the global market and we feel special commitment to our
fellow countrymen. Therefore, our guarantee for the domestic market is four
times that of the foreign markets. On the other hand, we do our best to
support the right of consumers and were awarded a commendations plaque on the
occasion of 28 February 2003 by Consumers’ Rights Support Organization. We
have tried to establish a good rapport with final consumers. We have conducted
polls among bus, minibus and trailer drivers and other consumers of our
products. We have also trained our representative agents as how to treat
customers. For this reason, we hold two or three sessions with our agents per
year the latest of which was held in Hotel Homa of Khazar about two months
ago.

What measure have you taken for increasing the safety
coefficient of your produced tires?

This issue has two aspects. One is
improving consumption culture with the other aspect being attention to
necessary measures for increasing safety of products. We have tried to
establish the suitable culture for using tires through advertisements, while
taking every measure for increasing the safety of our products.

What have you done for training your personnel?

We have held training courses for our
personnel in accordance with global standards. We have signed a contract with
the University of Applied Science and Technology to support 25 scholarships at
the university for the current year.

Please explain the measures taken with regard to technology
transfer?

The Pars Tire factory has two production lines. One of them
was made operational in 1984 while the other one came on-stream in 1996. We
have also drawn up a development plan for the company which has been pursued
more diligently since the company was privatized. My final recommendation to
the government and other exporters is that export is not a commercial affair
but a national duty and a way of uplifting the country’s economy.